It is in the ashes of what was once the greatest jazz town in the world that a large pool of experimentalists have emerged. One of these groups is known as the TJ Dovebelly. Hungry city-dwellers, frequenting the active art scene in KC have eaten up their fresh, freaky sounds.

The TJ Dovebelly Ensemble was birthed at a quirky downtown Kansas City establishment known as the YJ's Snack Bar. Mark Southerland (AKA TJ Dovebelly), a veteran experimental musician involved in bands such as the Malachy Papers and the Mr. Marcos V7, was able to put a new twist on the emerging art of Turntablism. Using arcane technology invented by one William Powell Lear, Mark was able to reconfigure the innards of old 8-track tapes. He then engineered a method which allowed him to "scratch" the tape back and forth across the play head of the 8-track deck, creating sounds akin to those of modern Hip-Hop DJs. In continuing with the DJ traditions, Mark decided to call himself a TJ, an acronym for Tape Jockey.